John Walker (1) (1906–1995)

Happiness is finding a great deal at a library book sale. I was quite pleased to pay $5 for this giant book of art from the National Gallery in Washington DC. It features 1,120 illustrations, almost all of them color, and many of them at the full page size of 9.5 x 11.5 inches. And what a collection it is, featuring paintings from the early Italian and Northern masters to those of the 20th century, as well as sculptures and drawings. It was interesting to read about the shrewd way the show more collection was acquired, and the commentary on the pieces, while a bit uneven and ‘old school’ (calling to mind some of the points Berger made in ‘Ways of Seeing’), sometimes revealed some interesting facts.

It’s very hard to pick favorites, but here are 25 paintings and a handful of sculptures and drawings which were at the top for me (as there were 40+ other works that were under consideration, so at least parts of this list could easily change in another frame of mind). Upon looking up a few of these on the museum’s website to compose a ‘virtual tour’, I find some of the titles have changed slightly since 1974, when this edition was first published. It’s also too bad more of these weren’t on the National Gallery’s ‘Intimate Impressionism’ tour, which reached San Francisco in 2014.

1. Leonardo da Vinci - Ginevra de' Benci 1480
2. Raphael - Bindo Altoviti 1515
3. Titian - Venus with a Mirror 1555
4. Gentileschi - The Lute Player 1612/20
5. Murillo - A Girl and Her Duenna 1655/60
6. Hals - Balthasar Coymans 1645
7. Rembrandt - The Mill 1645-48
8. El Greco - Laocoon 1610
9. Boucher - Venus Consoling Love 1751
10. de Goya - Dona Teresa Sureda 1805
11. Raeburn - Miss Eleanor Urquhart 1793
12. Turner - Mortlake Terrace 1826
13. Manet - Flowers in a Crystal Vase 1882
14. Renoir - Odalisque 1870
15. Degas - Four Dancers 1899
16. Cezanne - House of Pere Lacroix 1873
17. van Gogh - Farmhouse in Provence, Arles 1888
18. Redon - Evocation of Roussel 1912
19. Rousseau - Rendezvous in the Forest 1889
20. Fantin-Latour - Mademoiselle de Fitz-James 1867
21. Homer - Breezing Up 1876
22. Cassatt - The Boating Party 1893-94
23. Modigliani - Chaim Soutine 1917
24. Feininger - Zirchow VII 1918
25. Hartley - Mount Kitadhin 1942

1. Rodin - The Evil Spirits 1899
2. Tassaert - Painting and Sculpture 1775-78
3. Lehmbruck - Seated Youth (The Friend) 1917
4. Bernini - Self-Portrait 1614-15
5. Picasso - Self-Portrait 1902 show less

Yes, it's a nice collection. Cole's Voyage of Life series is/are my favorite(s). I own lots of hardcover, large format art books. And this one has the poorest color reproduction of any of them. (by far, the poorest)

I got my version at the Goodwill Book Store for $8.99. This is a 1984 New and Revised Edition, so maybe the color is better than the earlier edition. It has a few more pictures. But I was happy to find it, because in several trips to DC, I have never made it to the National Gallery. Too heavy to lug around at 8 pounds.

A celebration of European painting from the thirteenth to the early twentieth century.

The National Gallery, London, houses one of the finest collections of western European paintings in the world. Its extraordinary range includes masterpieces from the early medieval and Renaissance periods to Post-Impressionism, by artists such as Leonardo, Raphael, Holbein, Titian, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Turner, Monet and Van Gogh. This beautiful book presents more than 275 of the Gallery's most treasured show more pictures including some outstanding recent acquisitions. Each work is richly illustrated, many with full page details, and accompanied by a concise, illuminating text. Like the collection itself, the paintings are arranged broadly by date, offering an unrivalled overview of European painting through seven centuries and allowing the reader to make fascinating connections across this uniquely representative collection.

An introduction by Gabriele Finaldi provides a history of the Gallery from its beginnings in a London townhouse to its present landmark position in Trafalgar Square. show less